Vive la Union!

[fivemack]

The EU takes on its ten new members on 1 May. I didn't get to Berlin when the Wall came down (I was twelve at the time, and besides it was in the middle of term); it would be kind of nice to be in Wenceslas Square when one of the more obvious and hopeful side-effects of the Wall's fall finally resolves itself after fourteen and a half years. At least, I hope the place will be full of celebrating Czechs.

And, though it's a bank holiday, Easyjet haven't put their fares up too far yet.

So, Prague or Ploktacon? Or would Poland or 'Pest be a better place for the celebrations? I've googled a little for celebrations, but no success — they may be targetted towards Hungarians and therefore in Magyar.

Comments

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

14 years of democratic self-determination proved too much for them, I guess. Psychological craving to be a satellite of a would-be superpower too great, though at least they'll have an almost-4% say in this one.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Very well then, come to Prague and drown your sorrow at the ending of fourteen years of poor, fairly-isolated independence from the most benevolent super-state around in quantities of fine Plzner beer.

And national sovereignty? For a nation of ten million, on the Belorussian frontier, without a hydrogen-bomb between them, and 20% lower GDP per capital than Poland?

Yes, it moves around the development money, but I'm not sure I'd not rather more of my tax money go to the smallholders of Brno and less to the Duke of Buccleuch.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

And could their GDP have been rising faster if the trade barriers had started coming down significantly faster, rather than being used as a pawn in political negotiations? Does the right to make your own laws depend on your ability to drop h-bombs on other countries (well, other than in extremis), when you're in NATO anyway? As for benevolence, ask Oxfam. In fact, here we go.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/trade/bp22_eutrade.htm

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

That's a "were kittens to grow on trees ..." kind of an argument; yes, the EU has trade barriers - so does the US, so does any super-state. Wherever you have democracies with farmers in, the farming lobby grows strong, and trade barriers are the easiest concession to make to them.

But given that the EU has trade barriers, it's remarkably clear which side of the barriers Jan Czech wants to be on; and, if you're to argue for the noisome evil of the EU in all things, it's hard to explain away why they're letting the Eastern European nations in to their exclusionist super-state so quickly.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

if you're to argue for the noisome evil of the EU in all things, it's hard to explain away why they're letting the Eastern European nations in to their exclusionist super-state so quickly.

Geopolitics, largely - the Eastern European states will be part of a power block, and with the demise of the USSR, the choices are pretty much the EU or the USA. Offering them economic advantages is meant to buy them, and fulfils the dream of plenty of European statesmen of 'reuniting' Europe. Many European politicians are deeply resentful of the fact that the USA has a smaller population, but is punching much higher than its weight in world affairs (which in a sense is fair enough I suppose, I just don't especially want to be part of an anti-American superpower). Of course it might all go wrong for them, given the number of central European states that were happy to line up with the US over Iraq.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Gah, imbecile que je suis, that "Poland" ought to have read "Portugal". The Czech Republic has 50% more GDP per head than Poland.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Dispute your figures a bit too, though I'm working from 2002, Eurostat gives Portugal at 71% of EU average, and Czech Republic at 62%. Which is more like, umm, 12% lower.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

You're probably right; I was using the CIA World Factbook on-line, which is lovely and comprehensive, but which does purchasing-power adjustments by an opaque process probably not involving hamburgers.

They reckoned Portugal's GDP-per-capita was $19.4k and the Czech Republic $15.3k, which does give 20%

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Yeah well, the way the Dollar and the Euro have been behaving since the Euro came into being, anything's possible.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

My reaction to that ran something like: "Oh, do we still have a Duke of Buccleuch? Cool. Oh, getting money for something? Probably cattle raiding like always, the bastard. No, by all means give it to the smallholders instead!"

I hear there's a very nice Afghan restaurant in Prague. If you're going to go, I can get you the address.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Probably

Restaurant Ariana
Ramova 6
Praha 1, Czech Republic
tel./fax: +420 222 323 438

Can't vouch for it, haven't been to Prague in over a decade.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Still the second-largest land-owner in Scotland, according to

http://menura.cse.unsw.edu.au:64800/2000/10/msg00041.html

though I don't know if EU subsidies tend to go to the land-owner or to the farmer, so I may have been being unfair on the man.

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

What a fantastic idea. I would appreciate a foreign holiday around my birthday.

Ireland, which will still hold the EU presidency in May, will be holding parties for the 'Day of Welcomes'. There'll be fireworks in Valletta. I can't believe that's all.

I certainly didn't know before googling for this that 9 May each year is Europe Day.